Crossing the Line (30 page)

I
'm going to patch you into the rest of the team,” Sam said.

A few seconds later Cody's voice was in our heads. “You guys safe?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Travis said. “Let us get a place to hide, then we'll check back in.”

“Copy that.”

Travis started shifting some cargo. The space was full of boxes, but they weren't stacked like I would have expected. They were spread and weaved across the car in a way that didn't make any sense. Some ran from the floor nearly up to the top of the ceiling, while the others came up to my waist. They were the perfect height for a seat even if I'd have to jump a little to get on one. Travis started in the back of the car, where the bigger boxes were, and I started at the front. I tried to shift the boxes around, but I couldn't move them.

“What's in these things?” I pushed harder, trying to make them budge, but they barely slid across the floor. Travis struggled with the bigger floor-to-ceiling boxes in the back.

“Come here for a second,” he said, motioning to me. I maneuvered my way back. Travis pointed to the Korean writing on the box. “Korean isn't my strongest language, but I think that says it's steel.”

“Yeah, that says steel.” I sat down on top of one of the smaller
boxes, and I yanked the scarf from around my neck, stuffing it in my jacket pocket. I was starting to feel like it was choking me. “How are we supposed to carve out a place to hide? We can barely make a path?”

“I can move the boxes,” Travis said. The car jerked as the train started moving and I slid slightly on my steel block. The boxes themselves barely moved. The car we were in was completely cut off from the rest of the train, so no one could get to us while the train was in motion. We were given a reprieve until the next stop.

“You can't lift these.” I didn't mean for my voice to hitch or for panic to creep in. “We wouldn't even be strong enough to lift them together.”

Travis's eyebrows shot up. “Let's just get one thing straight. No matter what plan we come up with, there is absolutely no way you are moving or lifting anything.”

I glared at him. “I'm not some weak-ass girl.”

He smirked. “Trust me, I know that. You've kicked my ass on more than one occasion, but there's no point in finding a place to hide if you're going to pull your wound open and bleed all over the car. Once we're hidden, we need to stay that way, and I won't be able to close that up again. I need you in one piece for this, okay?”

I ripped off my wig and let out an irritated grunt, but nodded. “Then we need a different plan.”

Travis turned around to lean next to me on the same block I was sitting on. I stared at the tall boxes waiting for an idea to pop out and announce itself to me. And then it did.

I jumped up to stand on the block so suddenly that it startled Travis, who glared up at me. “What are you doing?”

I stood on the tips of my toes and could just barely peek over the top of the tall boxes. But I saw exactly what I was hoping to see. There was a row of tall boxes along the back wall of the car, but right in front of that row, the boxes weren't lined up so neatly. There was one hole that would be perfect. Three tall boxes made a U against the left wall.

I looked back down at Travis, sizing him up.

“What are you thinking?” he asked.

“There's an opening in the middle of these boxes.” I gestured toward the tower in front of us. “If we can swing the box at the back of the U out, we can slide this”—I tapped my toe on the shorter box I was standing on—“in the middle.”

Travis's eyes widened. “That way we can drop into it.”

“The only problem we're going to have is if someone stands on a short block like I just did to see if there are any holes,” I said. “They'll find us in two seconds.”

Now Travis was the one scanning the room, looking for some kind of answer. I sat back down on the box. He glanced down at the miniature square, then back up at me, wide-eyed. “I have a roll of medical tape. It's a steel block. We can cut the cardboard top off the box we're going to use and sit on the block itself, then tape the box top to the others so it'll at least look like there's another steel tower.”

I tilted my head to the side, considering. “But if anyone touches it, they're going to know there isn't steel underneath the cardboard.”

Travis shrugged. “I don't think we're going to get anything better.”

I thought for a moment, weighing our options. Then Sam's voice was in our heads. “They're on to you. The Korean military combed through the security-camera footage at the station after they lost their feed. Raven, they found a shot of your face before the feed cut
out. They've shut the train station down and ordered all trains to be searched at the nearest station.”

I glanced at Travis. “Okay, let's do this.”

He approached the tall steel tower against the wall and I followed him. “I thought we agreed you weren't going to make a bloody mess,” he said.

I rolled my eyes. “I don't need to use my arm. I can use my good shoulder to push.” His eyebrows knitted together and he gave me an expression that said this wasn't much better. I got defensive. “You can do most of the pushing, but this is a lot of steel. You're going to need help.”

He shot me a stern look. “If you feel even the slightest bit worse, you better stop.”

“I will.” He knew it was the best he was going to get. I pulled a knife out of my pocket and handed it to Travis. He cut off the cardboard, exposing the steel, and put it on top of one of the other boxes.

It took a lot of work, and the pain in my shoulder did get a little worse, but not enough to matter. Eventually we had the towers open enough to fit the smaller block inside. Travis insisted on moving that one by himself and I let him. Once we had the small block enclosed, we moved another one of the other small blocks closer. Just close enough so we could use it to climb onto the taller ones. Travis helped me up onto the boxes. I waited for him to climb up and slide into the small rectangle of space before preparing to drop down myself.

“You're going to have to sit,” I said. “You're too tall to hold the top up.”

He rolled his eyes but didn't move. “And you're supposed to do this one-handed?”

I glared at him, annoyed, but I jumped down next to him. “Fine. You tape the first side so it'll stay and then I'll do the rest.”

He debated for a moment, then ripped off pieces of medical tape and gave them to me to hold. He had cut the box so we had a little lip around the edges to work with. The box top popped up above the others slightly, but Travis was able to dip down and line the edges up perfectly.

“Go ahead,” he said when he had finished. “It's all you.”

He sat down on the smaller block and stretched his legs diagonally across. There was barely enough room for him to extend completely. The box top sagged slightly, but my head pushed it back into place when I straightened up. Travis snorted.

“What?” I asked, glancing down at him.

“It would figure that you're just stubborn enough to be the perfect height for your head to hold the box up.” A ray of light from the small opening in the center of the box fell across his face. He shook his head. “Anything to keep you from asking for help.”

I rolled my eyes. “Will you
please
just rip the tape?”

He laughed but did as I asked. A few minutes later I had us all taped in. I slid myself down onto the steel square, draping my legs over his so I could stretch out as much as possible. For a few moments, the only sound was me breathing harder than I intended. It wasn't until then that I had time to think—time to really comprehend the situation we were in.

It was only the two of us. We didn't have any tactical information and we had an entire intelligence agency and military looking for us. An agency that would kill Travis and do God knows what to me.

“All right, we're hidden,” Travis said into the comms.

“Good,” Cody said. “Raven, you holding up okay?”

I smiled lightly, despite the situation. “I think I should be asking you that.”

“Please,” he said. “I got a scratch. You got a bullet.”

“I'm doing fine,” I said.

“Glad to hear it.”

“We're going dark until we get off the train,” Travis said. “Command, do you copy?”

“Copy that,” Sam said. “We'll be in touch when we're close to the inspection.”

He leaned casually against the wall of the car, then rolled his head in my direction. “How's your shoulder?”

Throbbing, but manageable. “It's fine. I told Cody.” I sounded breathless and unconvincing.

Travis shifted so he could get into the backpack next to my feet. He came back up with a flashlight, then leaned close to me and reached for the zipper of my jacket.

I pulled away. “What are you doing?”

He gave me a disgruntled look. “I'm trying to check your injury, since there's a good chance you're downplaying it.” I glared at him. He raised his eyebrows. “Are you telling me I'm wrong?” My glare intensified and Travis nodded once. “That's what I thought.” He unzipped it enough so he could slide the jacket off my shoulder. He pushed the sleeve of my tank top aside and carefully peeled the tape off my skin.

I studied his face as he examined my burned skin. He grimaced, but didn't look shocked. “Yep,” he said. “The skin is pulled. Any
harder and you'd have torn it open.” He pulled the bandage all the way off, then went back to the bag for a clean one and some disinfectant. He threw me a disapproving look as he rebandaged me.

“What was I supposed to do?” I asked, a burst of anger shooting through me. “This isn't a situation where I have time to sit back and heal. Did you really think you would be able to move all this steel by yourself?”

“I would have gotten it eventually.” There was an edge to his voice. He shook his head as he pressed the fresh bandage into place. “I spend so much time trying to keep you alive, the least you can do is work with me.”

“I'm not a civilian,” I said. “I've been keeping myself alive for longer than you've been training, and I'm not going to stop while KATO is after me.” Something I had said, or the way I had said it, quieted him, but his eyes never lost their intensity.

“I never thought you would,” Travis said. The frustration was gone from his voice and understanding settled in his face. “But I need you to stop fighting me. I'm on your side.”

“I know.” I dropped my eyes and rubbed my forehead. “I know. I'm sorry. I've—I have a lot of practice surviving KATO. But—” I took a deep breath. “I've never felt more helpless than I do right now.”

My hands started shaking. Despite my treatment, and the fact that I hadn't felt a symptom until now. Saying this out loud brought it out of me. I studied my black pants, counting the holes, purposefully avoiding Travis. Which was why I was startled when his hand covered mine. He squeezed it tight like he was trying to take my
symptoms away. “If they haven't gotten to us yet, they're not going to now.” He said it with so much certainty I almost believed him.

But my head knew better. “They can catch us any second.” I whispered like they were standing outside the boxes.

“If we don't give them a reason to look too closely at these boxes, they won't,” he said.

I looked back up at him. “These guys can be very thorough.” I pulled myself out of Travis's grip and leaned back against the steel, but Travis didn't take his hand back—it rested casually on my knee. And I couldn't help but find it comforting.

 • • • 

I kept my eyes shut for the next forty-five minutes. My stomach wouldn't stop twisting. I tried to picture a time after the next train stop, after the soldiers had searched the train, decided we weren't on board, and let us move on. But I didn't know how to believe that. I felt as if I was living on borrowed time. I should have been caught a long time ago. I was never loyal to KATO and my managing to keep it from them for so long was a miracle. I had to be running out of luck.

The train slowed to a stop, jarring me back to reality.

“Oh God,” I said, doubling over. I wrapped my arm around myself and burrowed my face into my knees. This time I embraced the pain in my shoulder, grateful to feel something that wasn't dumbfounding fear or dread.

I felt Travis sit up a little bit straighter. His hands fell on my back and head, his fingers working their way through my hair, moving in small circles, trying to calm me down. But it wasn't working. If anything it reminded me that I wasn't the only one at risk. I heard the train car doors on both sides of us opening and closing. There were
two teams, starting from either end of the train and working their way in. We were the third car from the end. I listened carefully, trying to determine how long we had until they were at our door.

It felt as if we were waiting an eternity. The only thing that kept me from throwing up was how much the smell would give us away. When the door finally opened I froze, completely petrified. Every muscle in my body was so tense and coiled that it probably took a foot off my height. Travis's hands stopped moving and pressed down on me, making me feel safer than it should. I heard their standard-issue shoes moving around the car. My heart was pounding so hard that I was sure Travis could feel it in my back.

A few grunted as they tried to move the boxes toward the front of the car, but that didn't stop a soldier from weaving his way to the back. I could hear his footsteps on the other side of the towers. My limbs were tingling themselves numb, and it was all I could do to keep myself from passing out.

“Steel,” the soldier near us said. Then he knocked on the tower behind me. Travis pulled his knees into my legs and pressed down on me even harder. It was the only thing that stabilized me. “Should we see if they're behind it?”